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Connecting Dots for Framing Health : The Self-Care Process
Dellafiore, Federica Arrigoni, Cristina Riegel, Barbara Jean
Dellafiore, Federica
Arrigoni, Cristina
Riegel, Barbara Jean
Abstract
According to the Middle Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness, self-care refers to a process of maintaining health through health-promoting practices and managing illness when it occurs. Self-care is characterized by three sets of behaviors: self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring, and self-care management, discussed further below. Adequate self-care behaviors are the cornerstone of clinical pathways and care processes for persons with a chronic illness who are determined to stay healthy, namely, pointing out the current lively and heated debate surrounding the international research on self-care. Despite the generic nature of self-care as described in the theory and the availability of research instruments measuring the construct, very few researchers have applied the concepts of self-care in the field of CHD, highlighting the heterogeneous self-care behaviors performed by adults with congenital heart defects (ACHD). The fragmented results about self-care maintenance reveal that many ACHD patients smoking cigarettes, using marijuana or other illicit drugs at least once, and consuming alcohol. A significant number (40%) of the ACDH population are underweight or overweight (obese), and only 30% of ACHD patients engage in an optimal level of physical activity. One in every three ACHD patients did not receive the flu vaccine, and one in five ACHD patients reported poor adherence to ongoing medical treatment and follow-up visits. Self-care monitoring and self-care management have received very little attention in the field of ACHD patients. Self-care self-efficacy, shown as a determinant of self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring, and self-care management, was studied especially in the context of ACHD patients’ willingness to perform physical activity, demonstrating that ACHD patients had low levels of self-care self-efficacy.
Keywords
Date
2022
Type
Book chapter
Journal
Book
Guide for Advanced Nursing Care of the Adult with Congenital Heart Disease
Volume
Issue
Page Range
255
Article Number
ACU Department
Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled
Notes
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.